A national-level basketball player died at the spot when the SUV he was travelling in collided head-on with a dumper truck on a highway in Uttarakhand, India, in the early hours of Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, and his wife was critically injured, police said.
Yatish Yadav, 24, a national-level basketball player, and his wife, Sheetal Yadav, a doctor, were in a Mahindra Scorpio on National Highway 309 near Pirumadara, in Ramnagar, when the two vehicles hit. Police said the crash happened between 1:20 a.m. and 1:45 a.m. Yatish Yadav was a resident of Shahpur Bametha in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad and worked as a teacher at a private school. The couple had been married for around four months, police said.
Wife Referred to Delhi-NCR
Police took Sheetal Yadav to Ramnagar Joint Hospital, where she was given initial treatment before doctors referred her to a private hospital in the Delhi-NCR region. Yatish Yadav’s post-mortem was conducted at the same hospital, where the family arrived.
The dead man’s father told police the couple set out from home late on Thursday, Oct. 1, for Nainital in the Scorpio, traveling the Kashipur-Ramnagar route. They reached the highway stretch hours after setting out from home.
The alert came from residents near the highway, who reported that a truck had struck a car in the Pirumadara area. A police team was dispatched to the site, said Ramnagar Station House Officer (SHO) Sushil Kumar. Officers took possession of the body and sent it for a postmortem examination.
Father Alleges Driver Negligence
Suresh Yadav, father of the deceased, alleged the dumper truck, identified by its registration number as HR38AC 4554, a 22-tire dumper coming from the opposite direction, was hauling minor minerals and swung onto the wrong side of the road as its driver allegedly tried to overtake another vehicle. By his account, the speeding dumper struck the Scorpio head-on, overturning the SUV, and the force of the impact trapped both husband and wife underneath the vehicle.
After the collision, the man at the wheel of the dumper fled the scene. Acting on the father’s complaint, police registered a case against the unidentified driver and launched a search for him.
“A detailed investigation into the accident, including the role of the dumper and its driver, is underway,” police said.
Suresh Yadav demanded an impartial investigation and strict action against those found responsible.
Investigators Weigh the Wreckage
The family’s account supplies the only version of how a loaded dumper came to be in the Scorpio’s path, and officers have not settled the question of who crossed the center line. Investigators are weighing three things: the condition of the vehicles, where the wreckage came to rest and what the truck did in the minutes before impact.
As of Oct. 5, there were no reports of any arrest of the fleeing dumper driver, of any charges beyond the case registered against the unidentified driver, or of any change in Sheetal Yadav’s condition since she was referred to Delhi-NCR.
Tourists and Trucks Share Lanes
Nainital is one of the hill stations most popular with travelers from the plains, and the couple never completed the trip, which ended on the highway outside Ramnagar. National Highway 309 is a main artery into the Kumaon hills, funneling tourist traffic from Uttar Pradesh and Delhi alongside heavy commercial vehicles hauling sand, stone and other minor minerals out of the region’s riverbeds. The two traffic streams share the same two lanes through stretches such as Pirumadara, often in the dark.